This article talks about a CAD system called Vertebrate Analyzer that is being created at the University of Buffalo. The Vertebrate Analyzer is supposed to be able to simulate the functions of vertebrates’ skeletons and muscles. Casting light upon questions such as:
– Why Did Sabertooth Tigers Need Such Big Teeth? – ScienceDaily
Author: Hjalmar Gislason
Play 20 Questions Against a Computer
This AI implementation of 20 Questions is incredibly good. It can pretty reliably guess what you thought of by asking 20 questions about it. And it is based on the same thinking as my Norm: Let the users have fun while adding value to an AI knowledge base. Most cool!
– 20 Questions – Directly to the game
– 20 Questions – About the project
SETI@home Interview: Tapping the Grid
Here is a most interesting interview with David Anderson, Project Leader for the SETI@home distributed computing program. Among the interesting facts:
- SETI@home now involves 0.1% of the world’s total computing capacity
- 4.7 million volunteers in 226 countries are chipping in with computing power
- SETI@home has performed 1.6 million years of computer processing time
- The network is managed be a group of only 6 people
(via Roland Piquepaille’s Technology Trends)
– Tapping the Grid: Interview with David Anderson – Astrobiology Magazine
MIT’s Picower Center: Brain Sciences with Broad Backgrounds
MIT is opening the Picower Center for Learning and Memory in 2005. It “focuses the talents of a diverse array of brain scientists on a single mission: unraveling the mechanisms that drive the quintessentially human capacity to remember and to learn, as well as related functions like perception, attention and consciousness.” How come the kids at the MIT always get to do the cool stuff? (thanks Magga)
– The Picower Center: About the Center
Personal Blogs are the Public Life Bits
A few months ago I wrote about “Memories for Life“, a proposal for a Grand Challenge in computer science. The aim of that Grand Challenge was to find ways to store, index and secure our digital memories, i.e. the digital trail that we’re constantly building in the form of digital photos, email correspondence, browsing history, etc. Microsoft calls this MyLifeBits, but I find David Gelernter’s term, Information Beam, even more descriptive.
One of the issues addressed in the proposal are the access privileges to our memories. Who should be allowed to access our memories and how do we control the access. Some memories we want to share. Let’s use photo albums as an example. Some of our photos we want to (or at least are ok with) sharing with everybody, others we might want to allow the family to access and others might be even more private.
I just realized that there is already a tool that allows us to manage our public memories: Personal blogs. With additions to the basic blog functionality, notably mobile blogging, it is actually quite good as such a tool.
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Breakthrough in Brain-Computer Interfaces
Researchers have developed a promising new way to control computers by thought alone
– Computers that read your mind – (The Economist)
Squid inspires nanolights
This overview provides a nice insight into reports about optical nanotechnology tools that are based on how an Hawaiian squid that uses reflective plates to confuse predators.
– Squid’s Flashlight May Lead to New Nanolights (Roland Piquepaille’s Technology Trends)
Professor Lives Life As a Cyborg
An article from AP News on Steve Mann
– Professor Lives Life As a Cyborg (AP News)
Games With A Cause
Some time ago I wrote about various attempts to gather common sense, the lack of which is believed to be one of the main hurdles to creating successful AI systems capable of human-like interaction.
A few weeks later I wrote about people as parts of computer systems to make them cheaper or more intelligent. Some of the best examples are when you can tap into the normal usage of Internet users to create something valuable as in the evolving banners example.
I began wondering if there was a way to make an incentive for Internet users to build a common sense database and actually giving them something in return. My suggestion: “Games With A Cause” – you play, we get a bit of common sense.
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More on Artificial Actors
I wrote a little piece on Wetware the other day about artificial actors in Lord of the Rings. The latest issue of Wired has a very interesting article on rendered artificial stunt men. One question though: Do they get paid extra for the more dangerous stunts?
– Attack of the Stuntbots – Wired
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